Criminal Justice News

Thursday, October 22, 2015

South Florida Man Who Engaged in “Sextortion” Sentenced to 139 Years in Prison

After having been convicted at trial of producing child
pornography, a Miami-Dade County resident was sentenced today to 139 years in
prison, to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release by U.S. District
Court Chief Judge K. Michael Moore.

U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer for the Southern District of
Florida and Special Agent in Charge George Piro for the Federal Bureau of
Investigation’s (FBI) Miami Field Office made the announcement.

Patrick Killen Jr., 22, of Hialeah, Florida, was convicted
on July 13, 2015, by a Miami jury of 15 federal charges, including: three
counts of production of child pornography; two counts of distribution of child
pornography; four counts of receipt of child pornography; four counts of
possession of child pornography; and two counts of transmission of interstate
threats.Killen was acquitted of
destruction of evidence.

According to the court records and trial testimony,
beginning at least as early as November of 2012, Killen created fraudulent
social media accounts using assumed identities of teenage girls.Killen stole photographs of minor females
from Facebook, Instagram and other sources that he used in support of his
falsified accounts.Using the assumed
female identities, Killen would search social media websites and engage teenage
boys, generally between 11 and 14 years of age, in conversation using internet
chat applications such as Kik, Skype and Omegle.Over the course of these conversations, some
of which lasted hours and others months, Killen falsely presented himself as
teenage girls.Killen would beg, bribe
and cajole the unsuspecting boys to send him sexually explicit pictures of themselves.In response to Killen’s fraudulent
representations, hundreds of teenage boys sent Killen sexually explicit
photographs and videos identified as child pornography.When many of these young boys expressed
reticence in sending additional sexually explicit photographs, Killen would
blackmail them by threatening to post the previously provided material on
Instagram and other social media sites.Killen collected, catalogued and traded the child pornography
photographs and videos with other individuals around the world using
peer-to-peer file sharing programs.Killen produced, possessed, distributed and received thousands of images
and video of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

“The lengthy sentence handed down today sends a message to
those who use the Internet to target and extort children through sexual
exploitation ‘sextortion’ and pornographic offenses,” said U.S. Attorney
Ferrer.“We implore the community to
protect our children by being vigilant and reporting all suspected offenses to
law enforcement.”

“The conduct of Patrick Killen Jr., is as appalling as it is
inexcusable,” said Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro.“Taking the identities of minor females
online, Killen would persuade teenage boys to send him sexually explicit photographs
of themselves which Killen later used to extort these teenage boys.Known as sextortion, online predators use
this type of behavior to produce child pornography and take advantage of
children through terror and manipulation.The FBI and its Child Exploitation Task Force aggressively investigates
allegations of sextortion and other online offenses against children.”

U.S. Attorney Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of
the FBI and Norwood New Jersey Police Department.The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S.
Attorneys Robb Emery and Ben Widlanski.